The Ottumwa Community School District board considered but ultimately declined to join a proposed multi-district legal action related to a 2020 data breach at student-information vendor PowerSchool. John, a district staff member who presented the item, said outside counsel organized by Ehlers and Cooney and the Franz law firm was inviting affected districts to join a contingent-fee action. "There's no cost to us. They're doing it on a contingent basis," John said, but he also described the work for district staff as potentially five to eight hours to assemble records. John told the board the district did not report direct monetary losses from the incident but that the company "breached their contract because part of their contract was keeping the information safe and they did not." Board discussion noted the breach notice dated to 2020 and described the district's notice as general and not confirming identifiable accounts were exposed. One board member, Becky Ingalls, said she was inclined to remain out of the litigation because the district had not suffered clear damages and to avoid the time and expense of litigation. The board moved and seconded a motion to join but after voting the motion did not pass; the chair recorded that the motion "does not pass." The transcript does not include a roll-call tally of yes and no votes. No follow-up direction to staff was recorded.